1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information reading apparatus adapted to read information recorded on a non-contact type IC chip and an information reading method. In particular, the invention relates to a portable information reading apparatus adapted to read information recorded on a non-contact type IC chip and an information reading method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a recording medium on which a large amount of data such as video can be recorded, an optical disk like a CD (Compact Disc) or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) has been widely spread. Also, as the optical disk, not only a ROM (Read Only Memory) disk but also a recordable disk and a rewritable disk are also common.
This optical disk can record an extremely large amount of data at an inexpensive cost and accordingly is widely used for recording and distributing a program and data as well as for distributing music software and video software and recording audio data and video data such as broadcast audio and video.
On the other hand, a non-contact type IC (Integrated Circuit) chip which can exchange information in a non-contact manner with a reader/writer on a terminal side can shorten a processing time from a connection start to a connection end because a physical contact at the time of a communication with a terminal apparatus is not involved. Also the non-contact type IC chip has such a feature that a high security is achieved due to an advanced mutual authentication and cipher processing. For this reason, the non-contact type IC chip (the contactless IC chip or the contact RFID chip) is spread for use applications of electronic money, transport tickets, admission cards, and the like.
Then, mounting of the non-contact type IC chip having such superior features to a substrate of an optical disk is considered as before. For example, such an optical disk is considered that a recessed part is formed on each of two disk substrates, and an IC chip and an antenna for sending and receiving are arranged as an integrated module in a gap formed between the recessed parts when the disk substrates are bonded to each other (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-245381). With this configuration, it is possible to check a recording content of an optical disk without setting the optical disk in an optical disk player and accessing the optical disk.
Also, a technology for managing a large number of arranged goods by reading information recorded on tags attached to the goods is proposed. For example, an information inspection apparatus adapted to inspect an arrangement of goods by reading goods information recorded on information tags attached to the goods (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-247209).
Incidentally, a communication is performed between the non-contact type IC chip and the reader/writer by using electromagnetic waves through antennas respectively provided to the non-contact type IC chip and the reader/writer. However, depending on shapes of the respective antennas, due to characteristics of the electromagnetic waves, directivity may be generated when the sending and receiving are performed in some cases. Accordingly depending on the intensities of the electromagnetic waves generated by the respective antennas and a positional relation between the antennas, such a situation may occur that the communication is difficult to perform.
In particular, in a non-contact type IC card of an electromagnetic induction system represented by the case of the communication frequency 13.56 MHz or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), a communication state is set to be satisfactory when an antenna coil of the non-contact type IC chip and an antenna coil on the reader/writer side face each other. Thus, when directions of the respective antenna coils are orthogonal to each other (that is, normal lines of antenna faces of the antenna coils are orthogonal to each other), the communication may be difficult to perform in some cases.
In contrast to this, such a technology is proposed for improving a communication state by using a relay antenna called booster antenna in a case a satisfactory communication is difficult to perform due to the positional relation between the antennas. For example, such an information storage medium management system is considered for enabling, by providing a booster antenna to a storage case of a recording medium, a communication between a non-contact type IC chip mounted to the recording medium and a reader/writer provided to a storage rack (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-339170).